Avalanche HC has bad news on pair of forwards

The Colorado Avalanche finds themselves down a pair of forwards for Saturday night’s game against St. Louis.  Head coach Jared Bednar told reporters that forwards Artturi Lehkonen and Andrew Cogliano are both out of the lineup, via NHL.com’s Ryan Boulding.  Lehkonen is expected to miss several weeks with an upper-body injury, while Cogliano is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury.  In a corresponding move, the team announced the recall of forward Riley Tufte and defenseman Caleb Jones from AHL Colorado.

Lehkonen suffered the injury after crashing head-first into the boards on Thursday against Seattle.  That said, Bednar clarified that the upper-body issue that the 28-year-old has is not a head injury.

Last season, Lehkonen put up career highs across the board in his first full season with the Avs, notching 21 goals and 30 assists in 64 games while seeing his playing time surpass the 20-minute-a-night mark for the first time.  His numbers are down a bit this year, but he still has been an important part of their top six, picking up three goals and five helpers in a dozen contests while logging 18:30 per contest.  There is no firm timeline for how long he will be out for.

As for Cogliano, the 36-year-old has been a regular on Colorado’s fourth line this season and is their second-most used forward on the penalty kill behind Logan O’Connor.  He has three assists in 11 games so far after missing the season opener as he finished recovering from two fractured vertebrae in his neck that occurred during the playoffs last spring.

Jones, meanwhile, signed with Carolina during the offseason but after clearing waivers and being loaned to AHL Colorado, the Avs acquired his NHL rights last month.  This will be his second recall of the season although he didn’t see any action during his first one.  The 26-year-old has 213 career NHL appearances under his belt and has six assists in a dozen games with the Eagles so far this season.

The Avalanche had two open roster spots following Tufte’s paper demotion to the minors Friday, so no corresponding moves needed to be made to add him or Jones onto the active roster.  Speculatively, Lehkonen will likely be heading for injured reserve at some point which would open up another spot on the roster.